semicolon

The ups and downs of my dad's health have hit a new low: the antibiotic treatment he was on for his knee apparently reduced other, good bacteria in his digestive system, resulting in him developing colitis - infection of the colon by the C-diff bacteria that live there. Last week the doctors determined that his knee infection was cleared up, and took him off the antibiotics; however, the C-diff bacteria weren't under control, as it turned out on Saturday when he fell violently ill and had to go to the hospital. Although the doctors put him on new medications, they determined that the best way to end the problem would be to remove the colon, which they did in surgery last night. The word from my mom this evening is that he's recovering well, even laughing when he mistakenly said "Hi Phil" to my younger brother as he often does even in normal circumstances. 

Hopefully once he's recovered from this operation, he'll be able to get back to a somewhat normal life and be free of further infections and complications for a while. It's difficult because, after so many years taking anti-rejection medication for his heart, his body is very weak against any kind of infection. On his fifteenth rebirthday - the anniversary of his transplant - this year, I expressed the hope that he'll see another fifteen years, which aside from his heart issue would be reasonable for someone from his long-lived family. Now, his 69th birthday is coming up at the end of September, and although I expect he'll see that, I worry about how he'll be by the time his 70th comes around next year. Still, the semicolon is a pause, not a full stop, and I can hope my Dad's got a lot left to say after this pause.